After a very protracted period of security checks it’s been decided that we can, at last, head off to Senegal. I’m going to be filming chimps for the BBC Survival series.
This is a really interesting group of chimpanzees which live in a semi-desert environment, rather like the patchwork of scrub and grassland in which humans are thought to have evolved. This group do all sorts of fantastic behaviours; digging for water, collecting honey, making tools to spear bush babies, playing twister, holding fondu parties etc, and I can’t wait to see them.
It’s going to be a tough one – it was 42C in the shade there yesterday and I’m be on foot with the chimps from dawn to dusk carrying all our stupidly heavy camera kit. I’m hoping they will take it easy on me, somehow I know they won’t.
I understand they can walk 10+ miles a day (and then you have to walk back to the vehicle in the dark). I’m expecting to have to drill a couple more holes in my belt, which might be no bad thing…. more news to follow.
